Of Pride and Prejudice
by Jezebel LaRue
Summary: After discovering exactly where she falls in Harry's list of priorities, Ginny decides to reconsider her own list, but she never in her wildest dreams imagines where that will lead her to.DM&GW Please Read&Review...it's a good story...honestly.


Of Pride & Prejudice 

(Nothing from the Harry Potter world belongs to me.)

Summary-After discovering exactly where she falls in Harry's list of priorities, Ginny decides to reconsider her own list, but she never in her wildest dreams imagines where that will lead her to.

_"My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods; time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath--a source of little visible delight, but necessary."-E. Bronte _

That summer was the summer where everything changed. For Ginny, it felt like she was re-living the summer before her first year all over again. She felt alone because she _was_ literally alone; Harry, Ron, and Hermione had run off to some top secret mission right after the wedding. Bill and Fleur's wedding at the Burrow (much to Fleur's dismay), was the last time so many people were together celebrating life that summer. The celebrations were outrageous, people were celebrating like there was no tomorrow; even Ron and Hermione were dancing, although they both looked a little tense. At the time Ginny thought it was because the "secret" passion they harbor for each other, but she later found out it was because of what they were planning to do the next day.

The morning after the wedding Ginny woke up to an empty house, although at first she didn't realize it was empty. She _had_ expected it to be mostly empty because she thought she knew of most everyone's plans, even their "secret" ones; Bill and Fleur had said that they were going to take a short honeymoon and Ginny truly believe that that was exactly what they were doing, and when her dad, Charlie, Fred and George had said that they had to "work", Ginny knew that they were really doing Order work. But when she found her mother's note saying that she had "_other business to attend to…and could you all please make yourselves breakfast and keep out of trouble_" she was almost just as surprised as when she later found Harry's note. And that's how she was considering it even though it was signed by all three of them and it wasn't addressed to her, she knew that it was meant _for_ her _from_ Harry.

She had been irritated when she found her mother's note in the kitchen table; as hungry as she was she knew that the "make yourselves breakfast" part really meant "Ginny, make breakfast", tired and grumpy she decide to fly it off before the Trio woke up. It was funny now, that she thought about it, how she hadn't noticed that Hermione's bed was empty that morning when she woke up, but she had figured it was too bloody early for anyone to be awake if they didn't have to be awake after a night like that. Something had woken her up, something in her dreams that she couldn't remember. She hadn't had a nightmare in years, and she couldn't quite recall if her dream was unpleasant enough to qualify as a nightmare.

That was what she was thinking about when she was walking down the path towards the broom shed. Well, that and the fact that she was hungry and would have to cook breakfast for two guys that ate like elephants and for a girl who couldn't cook to save her life, because frankly cooking and flying were just about the only things Hermione Granger could do abysmally. Well, there was also sewing. Ginny's moods were just about being lifted with a reminder of her third year when Hermione was trying in vain to sew scarves and hats for the house elves. Smiling slightly at that visual, she was just about to open the shed door when she saw the note. It was a simple note just saying, "Sorry, but we had to go." But Ginny knew what it really meant, which was why when she came across it tacked to the side of the broom shed she dissolved into a puddle of tears.

The night before, when she and Harry were away from the crowd and alone in the dark, in between their fervent kisses, he whispered to her sweet things. Murmuring against her neck and in her ear, telling her that he couldn't ask her to wait for him that he cared too much to do that, to ask that of her. At the time she had thought that that had meant that they were back together. But she was wrong; she was _so_ wrong. What it really meant was that they were officially off. That Harry Potter wasn't going to take anytime off from his "mission" for their relationship. That there wasn't going to be any stolen kisses or secret looks until the war was over and maybe not even then because who knows when "then" will be and how "then" will be. It could be years and years and many deaths later until "then" comes.

Ginny wouldn't have wanted to wait, she wouldn't have wanted to miss any precious time with Harry, and _any_time was precious in these dark times, but she would have taken that gladly if she knew that Harry was going to be with her at the end and if she knew that she could sneak some stolen kisses in between the waiting. And if she knew that that was the only thing Harry had to offer her, but Harry didn't have anything to offer her. Ginny knew that to Harry a promise was a big deal, that he always kept his promises and that he never made a promise he couldn't keep. If he would have left her with a promise of a promise she would have been content. But he didn't leave her any hope, no promises, no nothing to look forward to. And to top it all off him, Ron, and Hermione were all in mortal danger…_Merlin_, every one of her loved ones was in mortal danger.

By the time she finished crying her little heart out she lifted her tear-stained face and realized that the sun was up high in the sky; she had been crying all morning and she felt empty. And most of all she felt rejected. She spent the rest of the day going around the house from room to room lost in her thoughts. She was in the same shell she spent most of her first year. When night fell and her mother still wasn't home she decided to go to sleep, and in the morning when she walked into the kitchen and found another note on the kitchen table it felt like déjà vu to her. The note said pretty much the same thing as the last one, it ask them to "please make yourselves breakfast". It seemed obvious to Ginny that nobody but her knew that the Trio had run off, and it stayed that way for three days.

On the third day when her mother came home with a bundle of groceries and asked where the boys and Hermione were Ginny shrugged her shoulders and simply said, "They're gone."

"What do you mean '_they're gone'_? Gone _where_? To Ottery-St. Catchpole?...I _know_ I wasn't specific in my note, but I _did_ ask you all to keep out of trouble and Ron _knows_ that means to stay close to the house, I've never let you kids go in to town when I'm not around; he should know better..." ranted Mrs. Weasley as she walked into the kitchen with all her groceries either trailing behind her or in her arms. "How long have they been gone?" she asked.

_Uh oh_, thought Ginny. _How in Merlin am I suppose to tell her that they aren't in _Ottery-St. Catchpole _having some good'ol teenaged fun, and that they're instead chasing after the darkest and most powerful wizard of our time?_

"Well, Ginny? And don't even try to cover for them, they should know better, tsk tsk at times like these…" she finished shaking her head. Looking up at her daughter she suddenly narrowed her eyes, "So _that's_ why you're here, you're their cover story-"

"Mum-"

"How long has this been going on? I'll bet they made Hermione stay one day too, and then today was your day to cover up-"

"Mum, _listen_ to me! I-"

"Wait a minute! This whole going to Ottery-St. Catchpole plan sounds like something _you_ would cook up…I just can't imagine Hermione coming up with a crazy plan like that and Harry wouldn't let you stay here by your self…"

Ginny could feel her temper starting to rise up to her cheeks in form of a blush.

"and Ron, well Ron just doesn't come up with plans like that, he leaves that up you, Fred and George…and Bill too, actually..." she added as an after thought.

"Well, I guess you just don't know them like you think you do because they are capable of doing _that_ and more." Said Ginny in a clam collected voice, she didn't for some unknown reason to her, want her mother to know just how hurt and angry she was at them (mostly Harry) for their betrayal.

"Whatever are you talking about Ginny , and for Merlin's sake look at me when you talk to me, at least that way I _think_ I know whether you're lying or not."

Ginny knew she would have defended her honor if it was any other day and if they were having any other conversation; even though she knew she was a good liar and wouldn't hesitate to lie if she thought the situation required some of her finely polished talent. She felt there was no need to waste talent like that, and it wasn't like she used it for evil, well at least not anymore, not after her first year of Hogwarts. But then, if she was honest with herself she would admit that she didn't have this talent before her first year; she could lie like the devil and know exactly what people were thinking, without any schoolgirl blushing or guilty feelings attacking her conscious, because she learned from the devil himself.

"I'm talking about _them_ being gone, Mum they're _gone_. And I _don't_ mean gone to Ottery-St. Catchpole."

"Oh, dear Merlin."


End file.
